Received wisdom, backed up merely by hard evidence, is that only Apple is making any money out of tablet sales. Except that's earnings as in sales of tablets: Logitech must be making a fortune from its tablet keyboards -- and if it isn't, it should be. Its latest, the
Logitech K380, is a portable keyboard that is good enough to use on a desktop too.
It's interesting to speculate why Logitech made this at all: its existing keyboards have good reputations, and the company was even the first to make one for the iPad Pro. Seriously the first: they beat Apple to the punch. If there is a group of people this K380 is aimed at that the firm's other devices are not, it might be those people who like the color blue. This is a blue keyboard. In real life, it seems a more tasteful, muted, dark blue -- but until we got to use one, photographs of it made it seem garish. We honestly wondered if we could type on something that looked like it would require sunglasses.
Again, in practice this isn't a concern at all: the blue is sombre rather than shiny. That does remove the one advantage we could see, which was that you'd always be able to spot your keyboard in a crowd. Yet we were expecting to say you should buy the dark gray version instead, and now we're not concerned.
We were expecting to have strong opinions about the color, but we were also expecting to have strong opinions about the keyboard. Overall, we do like Logitech keyboards, but they vary -- in the hunt for size, portability, durability and what devices they're meant for. This one had the apparently garish color, plus it unquestionably does have round keys. Instead of a regular keyboard with squared-off keys bunched up close together, the K380 has every key as raised circles that appear quite far apart from each other. They're not, our touch-typing fingers would've spotted that instantaneously, but the roundness makes them look it.
Curiously, the round keys that make the keys look wider spaced also somehow makes the keyboard look smaller than it is. This is a full-size keyboard, minus the numeric keypad -- and unlike many portable keyboards, you could use this on your desktop Mac permanently. It doesn't feel like it's been made with any compromise.
There are plenty of keys that double up with extra functions and that are labelled with extra text -- there's one key that's marked both Command for Apple users and Alt for PC ones, for instance. This is a case where you shouldn't look: just let your fingers do the typing. For one key is marked Command or Alt and the one next to it is Start or Alt. If you're a Mac user, the keyboard acts like a Mac keyboard, and it does so without your having to press Function to get these features where you expect them.
It recognizes the system it's connected to, and it can be connected to Mac, Windows, Linux, and more. This is a keyboard you can connect to anything.
On the move
It's one thing being able to pair this up with, for instance, your iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. It's another being able to just take this keyboard around with you and connect it to anything you need, any time you like. With some Bluetooth keyboards, we've had issues where they seemed to remember that they were paired to this particular device or that, and we've had to go to that device to switch it off. There's an easy setting in iOS, in particular, where you can tap to disconnect, and even tell your iPhone to forget this device. That's just no use when your device is miles away, or broken.
We hoped that the Logitech K380 would be the keyboard we could chuck in our bag and pull out anywhere. Say you're hacking into a NATO mainframe from your iPhone 4 -- we've all done it -- then speed is important, and having a keyboard you can whip out for the job is crucial. The K380 is that keyboard: it pairs and re-pairs easily, it lets you swap your devices without complaint or difficulty.
We did have some issues where the Bluetooth pairing had to be redone for no clear reason, but we've had that intermittently on most keyboards we've used. So it's a pain, but no more than that, and the re-pairing operation is a doddle. A greater pain is a peculiar issue with using the application switching shortcut in iOS 9: typing on an iPad, you can press Command-Tab and get a list of currently open apps, then tab along to the one you want. We kept finding that it would keep on tabbing, that it would race through the open apps list.
One more thing about using this on the move: there isn't a mouse or trackpad with it. We've been pummeling the Logitech K380, writing thousands of words on our iPads and it only occurred to us right now that there are situations where a trackpad would be good. If you are going to use this as your desktop computer's keyboard, you'll have to get some separate arrangement of mouse and the like.
With an iPad, of course, you are touching and swiping on the screen, so you don't need or notice that a trackpad is gone. You will notice that you have to prop the iPad up somewhere: unlike other Logitech keyboards, this has neither a trackpad nor a slot for the iPad built in. We like that. We're already propping the iPad up by its Smart Cover, and having a completely separate keyboard means we're not locked to one typing position. If the text on the screen is big enough, we can type from across the bar.
Heft
A permanent desktop keyboard needs some bulk to it: it's got to take a pounding, and do so while being shoved around a desk. Equally, a portable keyboard needs to be light. We think the most important part of a keyboard is how it feels as you type, but so long as you like that, then you do need to look at size and weight.
We just think the Logitech K380 has both issues covered. It is very light, you could carry this in your hand all day without being terribly fussed, and it lives to be thrown in your bag. Yet it also feels substantial. It has heft to it.
The fact that the keys are round keeps making us think of Fisher-Price typewriters, and that sends us off expecting a low build-quality -- no offence, Fisher-Price, but your toys aren't meant for the kind of pounding a professional working keyboard gets -- and there's no mistaking that this feels a bit plasticky. Nonetheless, the action on the keys, the feel of them all as you type, and the travel on each key, the distance it goes down before registering a keystroke, is excellent.
This is built to travel, and part of that is a claim that the keyboard will last for two years on a single pair of AAA batteries. That's very impressive, but it's also close to impossible to check out: we don't know what kind of average usage is expected for that two-year figure, we're not sure how new the batteries were that are in it. Otherwise, we'll let you know in 2018.
We'd recommend having a spare pair of AAA batteries in your travelling bag, though, and as well as common sense, that would alleviate a little problem. The way to tell whether you're running low on battery is to look at the LED next to the tiny on/off switch on the left side of the device. When you switch on, it shows green for a while so you know you're good to go, or it turns red when you need to worry. We're not clear how long you get between red light and the keyboard failing, though, so get and keep those extra batteries.
That is perhaps being too cautious, as the keyboard doesn't do much to draw power excessively or quickly. The keys aren't, for instance, backlit. That will be a deal breaker for some people but actually, not for us. Backlit keys are very attractive, but if you can touch type, then they are worthless: by the time you've looked for a certain key, you can't see the light because your finger is already blocking your view as it types.
If you can't touch type, learn to touch type. It changes the world. Plus it also makes you appreciate a fine keyboard when you come to use it. The Logitech K380 is a fine keyboard. Even if it's blue.
Rivals
No keyboard is an island, entire of itself. You have to consider others, and not because there are so many options but because you already have one. Apple lets you make certain changes to the type of keyboard you get with your Mac -- you can order a wired or a wireless one, for instance -- but you're getting an Apple keyboard of some description. There isn't an option to say "no thank you." So buying the K380 needs certain things to be true before it's an economically sound decision. If you really like the feel of the K380's keyboard, then nuts to economics: that trumps everything. Since the keyboard is excellent but not without equal, we need it to be economically sound too.
If you regularly type on an iPad as well as your Mac or perhaps your Mac, iPhone and Apple TV, Logitech's K380 is good value. It isn't so great that you should replace your Apple keyboard with it -- except all keyboards do wear out eventually. When you have to replace yours, the K380 is a huge contender.
We
do very much like the new Apple Magic Keyboard and the feel of it is better, to our minds, than this K380. Plus, with its squared-off keys and white/silver color, the Apple one even looks better. There is a big price difference, in that the Apple Magic Keyboard costs $100 and the Logitech K380 is $40, but you're saving a few bucks on something you will use eight hours a day for years upon years. Forget the price. If you can get to try out both keyboards for even a moment, the way they feel is important.
If you can't, then take it from us that the Logitech K380 feels very good. What would sway us to it over the Apple Magic Keyboard, though, is the combination of feeling good and working so well with multiple devices.
Let's put it this way: we just compared the K380 to Apple's keyboard in some detail, but only because you already get an Apple one with your Mac. We'd like to say that we still very much enjoy the
Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard and, again, the feel of typing on that is a little better for us than this K380 -- at first. For typing on the move, typing in cramped corners on trains, the Microsoft one feels brilliant, but we wouldn't use it on our desktops. It's not so great that it comes close to being your sole keyboard.
The Logitech K380 can well be your sole keyboard, and permanently placed in front of your Mac -- but it can also be a tremendous tool thrown in your bag and brought out wherever you are, whatever you need to type on. It's available for $40 in
blue or
dark gray.
Who is Logitech K380 keyboard for:
It's very broad appeal, we think. Desktop users should be tempted, because while Apple's new keyboard is very good and feels maybe better than this, it can only be paired to one device. The ability to carry an excellent keyboard around and connect to anything you need is compelling.
Who is Logitech K380 keyboard not for:
If you never leave the house, never type away from your desk, and have just one device, there is no great benefit to this. You may well want to replace your desktop's keyboard at some point and if your old one is wired, you'll like this, but don't rush to it.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
Readers: do you have an app that you'd like to see us review? Developers: do you want us to take a look at your app? Send your suggestions to our Tips email.
Top